Downing Street Says

The Prime Minister’s Spokesman (PMS) said that on arrival in Brussels, the Prime Minister would have a bilateral with President Sarkozy, which we expected to cover the main themes of the Council jobs and growth, and climate change. The Council proper would cover the economy, climate change, as well as justice and home affairs and foreign policy issues including Afghanistan.

On the economy, we were expecting a discussion on the successor to the Lisbon jobs and growth strategy, which was likely to be a priority for the Spanish EU Presidency in 2010.

On climate change, there had been strong agreement at the October European Council on climate finance. We hoped to build on this by discussing the Copenhagen launch fund, which the Prime Minister secured agreement to at the Commonwealth Summit.

On justice and home affairs, we expected the Council to discuss and agree the new five-year work plan for the EU. This would set forward priorities on issues including counter-terrorism, organised crime, and how we worked with our European partners on issues such as child protection.

Finally, we expected some foreign policy issues to be covered briefly, including Afghanistan, looking ahead to the London Conference.

Asked if the Prime Minister would talk to allies about Afghanistan troop numbers, the PMS said that that was not specifically on the agenda; it was for each country to make an announcement on their troop numbers.

Asked if the Prime Minister would be pressing for allies to adopt a one-off levy such as the one the Chancellor spoke about in the PBR, the PMS said that it was for each country to make their own decisions in this area. It was highly likely that this time next year the G20 international framework would be in place.

Asked if the City of London would come up in conversation at the bilateral between the Prime Minister and President Sarkozy, the PMS said that it wouldn’t be a surprise for there to be a discussion on the financial services sector.

Put that the Prime Minister would be put in a difficult position if countries declined to impose similar restrictions on their banks to the ones we had on ours, the PMS said that we were currently in a transition phase and this time next year the sort of structures that were envisaged by the G20 could have been legislated for across the globe. We had decided to do this immediately in the UK because we had a particular set of issues we wanted to address.

Put that the rise in National Insurance was a tax on jobs, the PMS said that the Prime Minister was focused on growth and fairness, and as the Chancellor had said today, the tax changes we envisaged would only impact on a relatively small percentage of the country.

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» Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Brussels

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